Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Group Manager for Street Scene and Open Spaces providing an update to current policies and to adopt new policies.  This will enable the Street Scene Education & EnforcementTeam to educate and enforce, by making use of the new powers available to them.

The Group had before it a * report of the Group Manager for Street Scene and Open Spaces updating the current policies and requesting that new policies be adopted.

The Chairman walked through the various policies and consideration was given to:

Fly Tipping Policy

·         CCTV coverage of affected areas with the Group Manager for Corporate Property and Commercial Assets and the Head of Legal informing the meeting that an action plan was being developed and would be reported to the Community Policy Development Group. Some of the offences would not come under RIPA and therefore a parallel system to balance data protection and human rights issues had to be developed. The phrasing within the policy with regard to ‘may’ and ‘could’ rather than ‘would’ was explained as a discretionary element always had to be included.  The number of prosecutions was also discussed and it was generally agreed that the increase in fines should be encouraged.  Delegated powers for District Officers was also discussed.

Littering from Vehicles

·         The following amendments were suggested:

Ø  Paragraph 5.1 remove the  words ‘in writing’ from the 4^th line.

Ø  Under paragraph 9 remove para 9.1 and renumber 9.2 to 9.1. 

Ø  Paragraph 10 – Ground E replace the word ‘court’ with ‘course’

·         Discussion took place with regard to penalty amounts which had previously been set and the definition of littering if stood beside a vehicle.

Compulsory Recycling Policy

·         The following amendment was suggested: the renumbering of paragraph 2 to include 2.3 and 2.3

Abandoned Vehicle Policy

·         The following amendment was suggested: the renumbering of paragraph 1 to include 1.2 instead of 1.2.1

·         Discussion took place with regard to the remit of the authority to remove abandoned vehicles from the highway.

Stray Dog Policy

·         The following amendment was suggested: under 3.8.2 the removal of      ‘his’ from the first bullet point and to be replaced with ‘its’.  Under bullet point 3 the removal of the word ‘and’.

It was therefore:

Recommended to the Cabinet that: subject to the suggested amendments (as listed above):

1)    Fixed Penalty Notices for fly tipping be increased from £200 to £400 and the powers to use CCTV footage be adopted to assist with fly tipping Fixed Penalty Notices and to include this within Council policy (Appendix A).

2)    The new powers set out in the Littering from Vehicles Regulations (Policy) 2018 be adopted and this be included within the new Council policy (Appendix B).

3)    Changes to the Council CompulsoryRecycling Policy be adopted following government guidance (Appendix C).

4)    The amended Abandoned Vehicle (Act) legislation be adopted and included within the Council Policy (Appendix D) which will enable Officers to investigate vehicles within the ‘open air’.

5)    The Stray Dog Policy (Appendix E) be updated and authority sought for the Environment and Enforcement Manager to be the officer appointed under section 149 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to keep the public register which contains the prescribed particulars of, or relating to dogs seized under this section.

(Proposed by Cllr  ...  view the full minutes text for item 82

To provide an update on the performance of the Street Scene Education and Enforcement Team and agree the priorities of the team going forward.

The Group had before it and NOTED a *report from the Group Manager of Street Scene and Open Spaces updating Members on the performance of the Street Scene Education and Enforcement Team.

He outlined the contents of the report and explained to Members that this was an update on the changes made to the service in April 2017. He explained that officers had a combined 300 hours of discretionary time per annum and the amount of time spent on tasks performed had been agreed by the previous PDG.

He explained that the discretionary time had previously concentrated on litter patrols and recycling and that this was working well. He explained that the rise in abandoned vehicles could be directly linked to the scrap values and as this was lower it caused an increase in this type of offence.

He informed the Group that the Enforcement Policies were due to be presented to the Group at the next meeting and this meant that Members could set increased fine rates for fixed penalty notices including littering from cars following changes to national legislation.

In response to a question about the training provided to district officers for evidence gathering and investigations, the Director of Operations explained that the Enforcement Policies would cover this aspect. He explained that currently the Council would not be able to use covert surveillance methods as they would need to apply for RIPA.

The Group AGREED to retain the current discretionary times and tasks.

Note: *Report previously circulated and attached to the minutes.